VacationSelector
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Monaco or Virginia Beach?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Monaco for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Monaco’s own page.

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • prices
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Monaco 68, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Monaco 57, Virginia Beach 42: Monaco leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Monaco 55, Virginia Beach 30: Monaco leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Monaco 48, Virginia Beach 37: Monaco leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Monaco 70, Virginia Beach 56: Monaco leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Monaco 84, Virginia Beach 64: Monaco leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Monaco 60, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Monaco 78, Virginia Beach 27: Monaco leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Monaco 52, Virginia Beach 32: Monaco leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Monaco 3, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Monaco 63, Virginia Beach 38: Monaco leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Monaco 55, Virginia Beach 32: Monaco leads by 23 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Monaco and Virginia Beach.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Monaco
Best match
58match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on prices and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MonacoVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMonacoVirginia Beach
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCEF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation68 m7 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMonacoVirginia Beach
City population38,857459,470
People per km²18,503-
Museums within 10 km142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Monaco or Virginia Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.